Ed.Min. failed to heed warnings of malpractices within Exams Dept: CTU
View(s):Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) General Secretary, Joseph Stalin said the failure of the Government to address issues pertaining to corruption within the Exams Dept, early, has resulted in corruption within the system. He was responding to last week’s transfer of the Commissioner General and the interdiction of the head of the Confidential & Institutional Examination of the Exams Dept, and said the Government, in the past, had treated complaints on irregularities in holding exams, lightly.
He said the Exams Dept, in addition to the Grade 5 Scholarship exam, GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level exams held annually, conducts over 300 exams for public servants, every year, with the integrity of the whole procedure in question. He said that, although several complaints were made in the past, no action was taken to investigate and punish persons involved in malpractices.
But now, he said the problems are beyond control with top officials being suspended and transferred. The CTU calls for a proper legal system to be set up, to investigate into complaints and reveal the outcome to the public. “Other than give evasive answers to the media, they do not investigate into the complaints,” he said.
Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said his Ministry is conducting investigations on several matters including maintaining confidentiality of exams, selecting paper setting panels, production of question papers, marking of answer scripts and conduct of exams by the Exams Dept, in the recent past.
- Chrishanthi Christopher